‘Poor storage facilities for tomatoes is our biggest problem’

What are the developments achieved by your association?First of all, making the farmers to agree and come together under one umbrella is a remarkable achievement in a conservative setting like ours. Similarly, we have recorded a greater percentage of accepting the modern technological advancement in the agricultural sector in terms of improved seeds, scientific methodologies […]

What are the developments achieved by your association?
First of all, making the farmers to agree and come together under one umbrella is a remarkable achievement in a conservative setting like ours. Similarly, we have recorded a greater percentage of accepting the modern technological advancement in the agricultural sector in terms of improved seeds, scientific methodologies of agricultural practices and agricultural mechanisation. But the greatest achievement so far recorded is the ability of farmers to come together as farmers and also as marketers of their own produce. This has been one of the major pluses the association is proud of since its inception.
How would you describe the tomato farmer’s involvement in mechanised agricultural practices?
We can only thank God and stakeholders in the business of tomato production in the state, for giving us the chance to be part of the global tomato production communities. We have jointly partnered with various agricultural establishments in accessing some mechanised methodologies of tomato production. And as I have said, operating in a conservative setting has initially served as a barrier to accepting some of these processes. However, we have succeeded in convincing our members to accept the improved seeds and also we have used our farm lands as demonstrative site for them to see how the improved variety seeds fared. This has convinced most of the farmers to embrace the improved seeds and that has increased the capacity of tomato production in the state.
Poor preservation has been a major problem faced by tomato farmers in this axis. What would you say the association has done to tackle that problem?
Globally, the best preserving method of tomato is through packaging as tomato paste, but down here the only way of preserving tomato is through drying which is very expensive to do and that has really slowed down tomato production in this area. The association cannot erect a tomato processing company, it is too expensive for us to do that. It has to be done by either government or by other strong private investment. To be honest, this issue of poor storage facilities has been our major headache as farmers. Had we had an alternative, we could have dumped tomato farming for other better things. This is because we have been operating on lost and I know you know how it feels to see your goods perishing when you can make do with little assistance to save the situation.
In recent attempts to save the situation there was this proposal of establishing a cargo hub at Malam Aminu Kano International Airport with facilities for handling perishable products for export. Are you aware of this attempt?
For long we have been part and parcel of such attempts but the irony of it all is that nothing seems to come out of it. It is really disheartening to see that most of these things are there on paper but when it comes to implementation, the answer is always zero. Take, for example, the proposed Dangote Tomato Company at Kadawa slated to commence operation two years ago but up till this moment that I speak to you, the company has not started working. Ironically, tomato farmers were made to increase production last year with the hope that the company will commence operation but we ended up counting our losses instead of our anticipated gains. If such happenings will continue to be our portion then I am afraid when the company is finally commissioned there will not be a single tomato farmer that could produce because he or she has been forced out of business.
As an association, did you ever access any agricultural fund from either the government or the private firms?
You see, unlike other institutions, our major problem is not funding.
What we really want is an enabling business environment where we will be able to sell our produce in good time without much ado. If we can have such business settings, then our problem I can say will be over for good. Therefore, the issue of accessing fund is not our priority in as much as the funds will not enable us to build processing company or its equivalent to save the business.